dangerous iware about paying the bill for that thanks for jing me tonight. that's all for this evening the rachel mad ow show starts now. >> good evening, chris thanks. thanks for joining us this hour. happy to have you with us. where do you want to start tonight? the prospect that we're about to shoot missiles after seer right after the president said he wanted us to have nothing to do with the war in syria any more we could start there. there is the fact that the president literally said today get ready, russia. that's a quote. get ready russia as he apparently was preparing plans to shoot missiles into syria where russia is the major organized military power on the ground. the president says, get ready russia, as in here they come. you guys ready got everything missouri moved out of the wait you good to go? this enough notice? get ready, russia. so we can start there tonight.

we can start tonight with the x rated report about alleged sexual abuse and violence by missouri's republican governor. that report just released tonight by the missouri state legislature. and that governor still believes there is no need for him to step down. we can start there. we could start with yet more senior officials leaving the trump administration. or we could start with the previously fired senior white house official who has been brought back and installed on the president's orders at the justice department. we could start there. we could start with the next new scoop on the mueller investigation following the report on dana benita and james comey. there is a lot going on my fine feathered friends. there is a lot to get through. and the speaker of the house third in line to the presidency, resigned today or at least he announced that he is leaving. he will not be running for re-election. who, hum.

normal wednesday, these are wednesdays in our life now. the republican party has held the house of representatives since the beginning of 2011. they won in chairman ber in the 2011 mid-terms, the tea party wave, one of the biggest partisan swings in the house in modern american history. the republicans picked up 63 seats in that first midterm after president obama was elected in the 2010 mid-terms. when you win a majority even if it's just a small majority you of course get to take control of all the committees in the house. you don't just get the leadership of the house writ large. all the committees that had previously been shared by kmkts, those democratic shares had to hand over the gafls to new republicans chairs. when that sort of transition happens it's a feeding frenzy in washington. power play writ large. lots of jockeying among members of congress for the best jobs. often chairman ships within by

senior members of the house. people who have been a lot of chits to cash in. >> but when the republicans took over in 2010 mid-terms getting sworn in in 2011, the republican member of congress who managed to snag the best chairmanship of all, the bunlt committee the person responsible for crafting the republicans economic alternative to president obama's proposals, that guy was a pretty young guy, 40 years old at the time. not one of the old lions of congress who had been raising money for his colleagues for decades, a 40-year-old guy who got that plum job not because he had been around forever because he had favors to trade. but he was seen as such a quality guy. he was seen as such an up and comer. and specifically he had a really detailed really specific plan. he said that he had the plan for

the republican party to finally get american debt and deficits under control. because he knew how to do it. you put him in charge. he would do it. his reason for living was to cut the debt. it was what he dreamed about, what he lived for, his life's work all he cared about. it was definitely one thing that he knew how to do better than anybody else. and he had dreamy blue eyes, looked awesome long sign blown up charts and graphs. >> the facts are very railroad clear. united states is heading toward a debt crisis. the only solutions will be truly painful for us all. that doesn't have to be our future. the way we respond to this challenge will ultimately define our generation. we can choose a path to prosperity. let's look at how we can do it. our debt is a share of the economy is already too high. but look at where it's going. niece are actually pretty conservative estimates. here is what would happen under

our proposed budget what we call the path to prosperity. as you can see we won't come anywhere close to the tipping point and we'll pay off the debt overtime. >> the house republicans budget man called for dramatic cuts and changes. >> we put the nation on the path to actually pay off the national debt. >> 41-year-old wisconsin congressman paul ryan is going big compared to the white house budget laid out in february. the republican plan over the next decade would cut government spending by $6 trillion. reduce the federal deficit by 4.4 trillion, compared to the president's budget according to the congressional budget office. >> budget chairman paul ryan champion of urgent deep cuts. a 40-year-old congressional rebel with a cause and john karlent inspect the day with him. >> he has been given more power over the federal budget than anybody in congress. >> the hearing will come to order. >> paul ryan the republican with the budget axe. >> 23 million.

>> he is a little like the guy in the movie dave, the accidental president who sets out to fix the budget line by line. >> that's another 47 million so this is good we're doing good. >> but in the movie dave only has to find $650 million in savings. ryan wants to cut several trillion over the next ten years. >> how do you go in here and how do you fine the savings you want to find and how. >> i've been reading these things since i was 22 years old you go through it line by line. direct loans this is perfect direct loans new spending and autopilot no congressional oversight and gave the illusion they were cutting pending. >> that's the paul ryan party trick he does with reporters open the u.s. budget to any page i'll find you waist kwaesful spending to cut on any page. look at this one. you thought your burping the alphabet routine or the thing with the chewing tobacco lid open the budget i'd kill that.

yes, there were party popsers outs there pointing out in the televised interview the random thing paul ryan happened to pull out at wran dom wasteful spending it's something that saved the u.s. government billions and billions of dollars so cutting it would cost billions of dollars. but still, the idea that he had some sort of budget magic, that he was budget magic personified. so exciting you didn't want to reveal how the trick was done or didn't work. you just wanted to believe in the magic. the beltsway really wanted to believe in the magic. however, you felt about paul ryan's actual grasp of actual numbers. by the next year that plan of his he had unveiled was such orthodoxy for republicans -- and he was seen as such a serious policy guy by the mainstream press pb be, the following years republicans by consensus chose paul ryan as the vice

presidential candidate to run with mit romney because yes dreamy blueys and youthful fitness looked great but also policy, right. he had the very, very serious plan. he was the policy guy. >> in choosing wisconsin congressman paul ryan as his running mate mitt romney instantly remade the presidential campaign. congressman ryan, the energetic chairman of the house budget committee is the republican master of all aspects of federal spending. and he comes complete with his own detailed conservative fiscal plan to remake the role of the federal government in everything from medicare and medicaid to tax policy, and agele subsidies. paul ryan has transformed the kban into a ideological battle. >> they called him the republican master of you all

aspects of process federal spending. there is a conservative activist grams grover more quist anti-tax crusader. he said at the time republicans didn't actually need mitt romney as a. le candidate. didn't matter who was at the top. that you will all they needed was the magic plan from the republican master of all aspects of federal spending paul ryan. grover more quist said we want the ryan budget pick a republican with enough work kworg digits to handle a process ento become president. . all went is the paul ryan magic plan. well paul ryan did not become vice president and that campaign he and romney lost in 2012. while romney is disappeared and trying to make a political comeback now. paul ryan kept rolling and became speaker of the house in 2015. and again, the prevailing view was this meant the republican party would now be led by mr.

policy by the most capable, devoted policy wnok in all the land. the man whose reason for living was reduces deficits and debt and boy does he know how to do it. once he was speaker he started release attention odd by exciting videos about himself as speaker. at the time that they made people think that maybe he was running for president in 2016 or maybe he just liked videos of himself out there with soaring music and the sound of people applauding him. >> how reassuring it would be if we fixed the tax code you process put patients in charge of health care grew the economy strengthened militaries lifted people out of poverty and paid down our debt. the cynics will skof and say it's not possible. >> well scoffing cynics who don't believe we will pay down or debt don't you know paul ryan has been working on this since he was 22. he has plan and is going to bring down the debt. he is doing all those things.

the debt will disappear. this is who paul ryan is in american politics. and he is an important figure in american politics. but this is the founding mythology of paul ryan over his 20 years in congress. and at the beginning of last year his party finally took control of the white house and the senate and the house where he is in charge. and he has a huge majority in the house can do what he wants. with that full control they have enact the some of paul ryan's policies that he has been campaigning for for 20 years. he is finally seen his fiscal plans come into existence. two days ago we got the mathematical fiscal assessment of the result of the policies. the deficit is for you going to shoot past $1 trillion. by 2020 as a share of the american economy, the deficit will reach levels not seen since the economic clams of 2008. before that the last time they

were this big was world war ii because we payed for a world war at the time. the debt is going to rise $13 trillion in the next ten years. that report from the non-partisan congressional budget office, cam that came out two days ago. then this was this morning. >> today "i" announcing that this year will be my last one as a member of the house. to be clear, i am not resigning. i intent to fill my served term as i was elected to but i will be retiring in january leaving this majority with a write future. i have accomplished much of what i came here to do. >> which part? you may or may not care about the debt and deficits. some people care a lot some people don't care about it at all. but getting rid of the debt and deficit. that's the origin story of why paul ryan exists in american politics. and why he is third in line to the presidency.

after the president and vice president it's him. it's why he was put in charge of the bumt for the the republicans and why they ran him for vice president with mitt romney and made him speaker of the house. he will get rid of the debt. then what he did with the power that they gave him once he got to enaccurate a the magic plan is that he is going to add $13 trillion to the debt. and paul ryan apparently looked at that report that came out on monday afternoon and thought, well, my work here is done. i pretty much -- i pretty much have done what i've -- i mean, again you may or may not care about that as a policy issue. but the -- i think this -- if we are never -- if we're ever going to look at this, this is the time. the beltway myth of paul ryan which we have been living through over the course of political ascendens, the beltway myth of paul ryan is the opposite of what paul ryan did. which should make us examine our

myths. whatever you think of congressman ryan, speaker ryan, whether you bought into the myth in the first place or not it's inskapably true that he did the opposite. he -- he failed at achieving the goals he set for himself from day one and that everybody cheered him on as being capable of achieving as a republican party leader. he did the opposite. and now he is leaving. saying he is pretty much done with what he wanted to do. he will be the second republican house speaker to quit in the space of three years. his predecessor john boehner stepped out in 2015. his post congress life has seemed kind of awesome actually. from what we foe about it it's mostly been him golfing and giving occasional interviews about how relieved he is not to be in congress anymore. he aspen out dispatches from his rv on the open road. he wears shorts when he drivers. kind of a low profile retirement for the last republican speaker of the house who quit.

but today turned out to be a awkward day for everybody in the beltway media to sayway i wonder what john boehner is up to. what happened to the last house speaker today ended up awkward for everybody to suddenly start wondering about john boehner again, because early this morning hours before anybody knew that paul ryan was going to announce that he too was leaving, john boehner announced very early on twitter today that he was joining the board of a weed company, like a marijuana company. john boehner former republican speaker of the house chose this morning to come out of the closet as a brand-new proponent of legal po. i'm joining the board of acreage holdings because my thinking on cannabis evolved. we know john boehner as a proud cigarettes and red wine guy. this is new. when john boehner shared his evolution, his marijuana evolution in the tweet before 7:00 a.m. this morning. i'm sure he didn't think it was going to be part of every story

about the biggest news in american politics today. but there you have it. something for paul ryan to look forward to now that he is retiring to spend more time probably becoming a lobbyist. i would pay money to see them high together at some point that will probably happen. but it is -- it is no mystery why paul ryan might have wanted -- might be wanting to get out of the way of the november elections this year. the tea party wave in 2010 and the first election after obama was elected president, that was the -- the wave election that made paul ryan budget chair. that was very big. some of the people watching these trends for a living they think this year could wri a democratic wave that is big are than what with he saw in 2010. even if you don't believe that hype and it's a long way before the election, it's clear it's at least a sort of rough year for republicans. in election after election over the last few months from state legislative seats to governorships even to the u.s.

senate democrats have been doing way better than in 2016 or in some cases boisterous than they've done in many elections cycles going back many years. democrat have won upset victories in traditionally conservative places hello alabama. there have been a number ofstoneses where democrat lost in conservative places. but the percentage swing toward democrats in those elections has nevertheless been huge. swres just yesterday we had a couple of special. a democrat won a florida senate race, sate senate race by a 50-point margin. and yeah that's a democratic district in florida. maybe not spraysing that a exact won. but hillary clinton crushed that district in 2016. hillary clinton won that district by 25 points. this is a 25 point swing further toward the democrats in that race yesterday. a 50 point margin. also yesterday there was another special in iowa. in iowa a republican won a state senate seat in a red district. but that republican won by 14

fewer points. than trump had won that district in 2016. so it's a 14-point swing in exact's direction even in -- even in a race they could hold onto. these kind of swings are real and we have been seeing them for well over a year now. and if they persist even at a fraction ofway we see now they will make it hard for republicans this november. not to mention the fact that every republican in america will be running with donald trump as their party standard bearer. maybe paul ryan could have been the standard bearer before he quit. but it's going to be donald trump. and that will doubtless help some republicans and some places that love donald trump. at the rate things are going right now it's hard to imagine what amount appear what manner of scandal appear legal peril by the time trump is going and voters are going to the polls in november. we learned last week the russia legal defense fund for the trump campaign staffers and the trump administration staffers is open for business and taking

donations. so maybe that could be kind of joint election message. maybe that could be vote for me if you don't have time to vote please contribute to the russia legal defense. happy election season, gop. we'll be right back. my car smells good.

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so we booked bob costa, national political reporter at the "washington post" tonight as soon as we learned that speaker of the house paul ryan was resigning. bob costa is one of the best-sourced reporters in washington, particularly on capitol hill and among house republicans. he has often been able to read tea leaves better than anybody else when there are leadership changes happening and big political skichls afoot among republicans in washington. we booked robert costa to talk about that because of the paul ryan story. and then right before we got on the air look at what robert costa broke at the "washington post" do we have this to put up this just went up at the website. a new scoop from mr. costa. quote, bannon pitching white house on plan to cripple mueller. to cripple mueller probe and protect trump. this has been just been posted by robert costa at the

"washington post". according to the new report he says that steve bannon ousted as white house chief strategist last summer but remained in touch with members of the trump circle, now pitching a new plan to the west wing to west wing aides and congressional allies to cripple the federal probe into russian interference in the 2016 elections. according to mr. costa's reporting ton, bannon's first proposed step is to fire deputy attorney general rod rosenstein who oversees the mueller investigation. second step is the white house should cease cooperation with mueller. reversing the policy of trump's legal team to allow staff members to sit for interviews. this is -- this is unusual. i guess this would be step three, or maybe part of step two. bannon is telling people that the president should assert executive privilege in such a way that he should argue that mueller's interviews with white house sfoeshls over the past year, the ones that already happened should now be seen as

null and void, executive privilege should be quote exerted immediately and retroactively. that's bannon's plan. also one final step, ty cob, the russia lawyer who works for the white house, ty cob should be fired immediately. bannon said. those are the teps. fire rosant. retroactively assert executive privilege and tri to nullify all of the interviews that exist and fire ty cob too. new reporting from robert costa the moderator of washington week mr. mr. costa trajs congratulations on the scoop thank you for being here. >> good to be with you rachel. >> let me ask you first about what you just posted at the "washington post". there any sense that bannon is pitching this through you because he believes that's his best hope of getting this acted on? or is it your sense that this is a plan that is actively being considered? >> as a reporter i came to ban boonen and has been hearing from

kwhous sources he was back in the mix. and he had been over in europe preefrpg his brand of politics in europe. after his operation here fizzled. he has been talking to people that the president needs to fire rosenstein, the meeting tuesday night with white house officials, aides privately having phone conversations, conference calls that sort of thing. >> you say in your piece, legal experts are du beau yaws about bannon's idea. >> very. >> the white house could suddenly claim executive privilege on interviews given voluntarily officials and exclude them from an investigation. is there -- were you able to sense from mr. bannon or anybody else familiar with his plans why he believes that this is even a viable prokt prospect for him to suggest. >> it's a political play as much as legal strategy. he is recommending. it's important to note mr. bannon is not an attorney. what you see from bannon is someone trying to play to the president's frustration with the legal team. the he team of ty cob and john doud urged cooperation. bannon thinks that is the

biggest mistake the president made. he should have never cooperated with the mueller pro probe. he is urge eyeing people inside the white house and close to the president to mount a more aggressive campaign and reshuffle the legal team and stop cooperating after you reshuffle the justice department. >> isn't it strange, though, that bannon of all people- dsh i mean mr. bannon one of the way he made headlines wasabi zrubing trumpier decision to fire james comey i i can't remember the exact phrase but one of the worst political decisions in modern history, describing the firing of kwomy as a terrible decision that might have doomed the presidency. now he suggests essentially the equivalent firing roe rosenstein to eliminate the special counsel investigation. that would seem to be quite an evolution by mr. bannon himself. >> it's a total reversal he criticized jared kushner for and others for firing i don't mean. now he urges political warfare. that's where we're with the presidency.

a president with a limited legal time and it's outside advisers working through. even though bannon burned his relationship with the white house with that "fire and fury" become, even bannon is coming back whispering to people inside the west wing what to do next. >> robert let me ask you about the hunl news in washington today we all woke up to that speaker ryan is leaving. not going to be running for re-election. obviously there has been previous reporting that had hinted at this. the speakers office defied it. people had been saying his retirement was coming. do you have any sense of how tied this announcement was -- this decision was to speaker ryan's expectations for democrats having a good midterm election and potentially taking back the house this november. >> rachel, you explained it so well. when you are losing seats in southwestern pennsylvania, and in an alabama, that pretty much tells you along with polls what to expect on the horizon. but the deeper question facing house republicans i poke to today is what -- who is the champion on the tax cut? ryan was the person who was

going to sell it. the president hasn't been out there repeatedly selling the tax cut. without the leader in ryan who is bringing together that traditional republican party? the republican party is so broken. there is the surface republican party the sfeerk speaker was talking about today harkening back to ronald regan and jafrp kemp. but the deficits were the motivating factor supposedly for the tea party. but a decade later what lingers on? no concern about the deficit in the republican party. it's grievance politics, furey with the sabby establishingment. >> narnl political reporter at the "washington post" moderator of washington week and proving himself to be a scoop machine. bob nice to see you. >> thank you. >> appreciate it. in terms of who replaces paul ryan a lot of discussion about that in washington when john boehner stepped down as the last republican house speaker to step down, everybody thought the guy who would step into the shoes would be kevin mccarthy, the congressman from california. once again it looks like that in the wake of paul ryan leaving.

but something happened when boehner left and the republicans decided they weren't going with mccarthy. they skipped him and put ryan in instead mccarthy is again set to be there. set to be next in line. nobody is really told the story of how come mccarthy didn't get it last time around when boehner stepped down. we'll see if that plays itself again a second time now that he has a second chance at it. all right. stay with us. ♪ ♪ ♪ raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens ♪ ♪ bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens ♪ ♪ brown paper packages tied up with strings ♪ ♪ these are a few of my favorite things ♪ ♪ ♪

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applebee's to go. order online and get $10 off $30. now that's eatin' good in the neighborhood. okay. so last night we broke a little bit of news about the russia investigation, justice department, the fbi. specifically we obtained new documents that allowed us to break two pieces of news. first handwritten notes from a law enforcement official named dane an boente. and those appear to corroborate down so some of the exact phrases what fbi director james comey told congress about interaction was president trump before the president fired comey last nay. now comey told congress for example that president trump asked him to, quote, lift the cloud of the russia investigation. the notes that we obtained appear to show comey describing that to boente the the same which. we he phoned after he spoke to the president to make sure there

was a record of what the president had said and done. that's one example. comey telling congress the president said he wanted to lift the cloud then he told benita, the same thing that the president said he wanted to left the clouted. comey told congress that the president said to him that the russia interference was interference in his ability to run the country. it appears that comey told in man the same thing. he also told congress that the president asked him to make a public statement that the president wasn't be investigated. comey appears to have recounted the same presidential request to dana boente. . and he told him that to make sure that the president never spoke to him alone about matters like that. he conveyed that soft drinks of that same conversation. and from the notes it appears almost the same exact word for

word language. so the reason all of that matters, the reason the matching phrases and descriptions of the conversations, the reason that's important is because the president is potentially in legal jeopardy for firing james comey. if that firing was an effort by the president to obstruct justice. how do prosecutors determine if an action like that was an effort to obstruct justice? they look at why it was done. and so all of these prefiring conversations and interactions between james comey and the president, they may end up being part of any legal case against the president, if the interactions show what the president thought of comey, what he wanted from comey, what might have motivated him to fire james comey. that's why comey testified about the interactions with the president in detail under oath to congress last year. honestly that's also why there is so much anticipation about his book coming out next week. what happened between comey and the president before the president fired him is really important to the question of

whether the president might be criminally charged or otherwise liable for obstruction of justice in thisstones. and the president of course disputes comey's account of the interactions. he has reapedly denounced james comey as a liar, directly denied comey's descriptions of his interactions with the president. comey's defense against that is that, well there might not have been tape recordings of the interactions but he has the next best thing. he has copious notes taken at the time by himself. but also by other senior law enforcement officials who comey briefed at the time, immediately following the interactions he had with the president, multiple senior law enforcement officials who incidentally are trained to take detailed notes for just this kind of reason, for evidence. so these handwritten notes which we with obtained, these are the first time we the public have seen any of the contemporaneous notes.

and they do appear to back up comey's version of what happened between him and the president sometimes word for word. that was the first big piece of news we broke. the other big piece of news was we obtained this letter in with i dane an boente explain to the justice department he has been asked to sit for a interview with the prosecutors. he is not just any other witness for this investigation. as u.s. attorney in the eastern district of virginia. he personally signed off on subpoenas and otherwise led led the initial grand jury investigations in trump national security adviser michael flynn and paul manafort when he was acting attorney general and acting deputy attorney general he served stints overseeing the russia investigation all of it. when he was acting chief of the national security division at the justice department. boente personally approved some of the most serious criminal charges brought against manafort. mueller asking him to come in as a witness is not just a run of the mill turn in the

investigation. he is not a normal witness. but we reported last night that boente has been asked by mueller to come do an interview. well then today the "washington post" pushed this further. because the reporter there confirmed not only has mueller asked boente to testify, the interview has taken place. the roert was able to separately confirm the authenticity of the handwritten notes we reported on. according to the "washington post". they are his handwritten notes. and he was able to confirm that these handwritten notes dana boente have been handed over to the mueller investigation. now, i mentioned last night that in addition to the couple of pieces of news we were able to get to last night we might have more to report in coming days. well, hello. it's coming days and here is something new to report tonight. and this one i think we can put up ol on the whole screen could we have it there? yes there we go.

and we have only done a couple of redactions process here. maeftly just reemail dresses because we don't need to publishize the e-mail dresses from scoot schools. the top career official at the justice department. date, friday morning, may 26th, 2017. and then the two field there it's a long and interesting list of people at the department of justice. you can stick a pin in that list. we'll come back to that list in a second. the subject line here says preservation notice. and then the letter from scott schools to his colleagues at the doj says this. all as in deer all. we have received requests that we identify and preserve any documents related to the removal of former fbi director comey and any documents related to the investigation of russian activities to interfere with the 2016 election. the documents and responsive materials covered by the request include but are not limited to i

love this both in draft and final form all emails voice mails documents, photos text messages walks instance emergencies action electronic handwritten and/or hard copy reports dbs corps pb transcripts audio recording analysis briefings assessment banner bres user agreements, audit records mete dat pf storages fight. fight dietary and calorie calendar sbraes. visitor logs be meeting and iens records be meeting room reservations meeting agenda badge records. records of entry of exit to building rooms or security facility. safe access records. video surveillance of public and non-public areas. and access locks ever including of classified information. also smoke signals if you have any of those. any removed tattoos you'd like to submit for lays are analysis. x-raies from the time you broke your thumb at the company softball game, the children's report cards back to birth and the son o grams. this is serious. they need it all. preservation notice.

ends by saying quote to the extent any of you or staff are develop documents please identify and preserve them so we can then evaluate whether and how to provide them to the requesters. now the requesters we can summarize are probably the special counsel robert mueller and prosecutors. because the date on this thing may 26th, nine days after mueller was named as special counsel. less than a week and a half after taking over the russia investigation, mueller and his team demanded all of this stuff from all of these people at the justice department. now go back to the distribution list. at the time chief of staff to attorney jeff sessions. sarah flores, the main oh spokesperson for the justice kpt. sam remainder at the time head of office of legislative department managing the relationship between the justice department and congress. mr. rehme working for the white

house counsel offers the chief of staff under comey he was another one of the people comey reportedly briefed on interactions with the president. he ended up leaving earlier this year sort of pushed out apparently in january. james crowell, somebody working in the deputy attorney general office in the rod rosenstein office at the time this was sent. also on the list. dana boen techlt who is copy this appears to be. he was included on the list both in his capacity as u.s. attorney for the eastern district of virginian a capacity running the national security division of justice department at the time. and i think this is his margin aly saying something about him bringing notes on this matter into scott schools before the memo went out. so this document has never been reported. part of what's important here is that all of this stuff, all of the top people at the justice department are supposed to find

and preserve and hand over to mueller. all of this stuff has to do not just with the russia investigation, already under way, but they're being directed here that they're also supposed to turn over all the stuff about what was then a brand spanking new investigation into the president firing fbi director cams comey. this memo went out on may 26th, comey was only fired a couple weeks before that. this memo goes out may 26th the telling people at justice to handle over stuff about russia and the firing of comey. nine days mueller was special counsel. this is previously unreported. this shows the scale of the request of documents and communications even within the justice department for people who may have ended up being witnesses to a potential crime that took place within the administration. when the president fired his fbi director for reasons that remain in dispute and under criminal investigation. just it gives you sense of the

massive amount of stuff that hurl and his team are hunting through in this investigation. not incidentally this previously unreported retention notice we have broken here tonight, this this shows the massive amount of stuff that has been collected by the investigation that will need to be preserved and protected somehow as evidence if in fact the president comes for the special counsel's office. okay. [ buttons clicking ] [ camera shutter clicks ] so, now that you have a house, you can use homequote explorer. quiet. i'm blasting my quads. janice, look. i'm in a meeting. -janice, look. -[ chuckles ] -look, look. -i'm looking. it's easy. you just answer some simple questions online, and you get coverage options to choose from. you're ruining my workout. cycling is my passion. you're ruining my workout. which is why i use armor tall ultra shine wash wipes.y. they effectively remove dirt,

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if you think it seems weird

that the president of the united states would address an adversarial country on twitter warning, get ready, the missiles are coming, you are not alone. after the president did say that on line today, even people inside the white house and allied governments that might work with the u.s. on syria strategy were confused siting multiple american and foreign officials said that tweet caught most of trump's aides off guard and came before an agreement had been reached between u.s. allies about what to do in syria. james mattis saying we're assessing what to do. we're still working on this. nonetheless, the president on his own decided to warn russia to get ready because military strikes are coming in syria. russia is bah sha assad's biggest ally and the president

warning russia to get ready. there is evidence russia is getting ready. the "new york times" citing analysts saying, the american strike intentions so clearly forecast by mr. trump, the syrian government has moved key aircraft to the russian base. quote, get ready, russia. thanks for the warning. joining us is nbc's national security reporter. courtney, great to see you tonight. thank you. >> thank you. >> it has been a year since the last missile strike against syria by the president. are you expecting, according to your reporting, they'll do something similar to that. >> i think they'll start -- we're told there is a decision making meeting that hasn't happened at the white house yet

but there are options on the table for president trump and they include two that are what i would call broader than what we saw last april. that was really more of a pin pick strike. it was more to send a message to bashar assad. it was more that they knew where the chemical strike came from and was trying to stop them from doing it again. if the strike last weekend was by it will syrian regime, which by all accounts it was, then that strike last year did not stop it. so this will be broader, and the question is how far will it go. will it target russian and iranian targets? that's unlikely. but president trump has boxed himself into a corner with his tweet today by saying that missiles are coming, smart missiles are coming. so there has to be some sort of response now rachel.

>> and some sort of response that includes that kind of weaponry, if he wants the tweet seen as an actual warning. >> looking back at that strike a year ago and the way you're drie describing it, does the pentagon, white house, view what they did as effective? i know they look back at it and see it as a polling success for the president but what do think think from last year? >> operationally on the ground it had no practical impact. it damaged some aircraft, popped up the runway, and several days later there were aircraft taking off from that airfield in syria. so while it didn't actually stop, it seems, bashar assad from using what may be another nerve agent, what people forget is from last april until today, there have been potentially dozens. there are reports of the assad regime using weaponized chlorine

gas against his own people numerous times since then and now. so it certainly has not stopped that. what it did, though, was send a message. it stopped any kind of follow on attacks in the immediate aftermath of the strike last april and it didn't draw the united states deeper into this largest civil war. that was something there was a lot of concern about at the time. this was something meant to send a message. it did, but it didn't deter. i think now the u.s. military planners are talking about something that goes a step further, something that might deter bashar assad from continuing to attack his people with these chemical agents. another thing people forget while it may stop him from doing anything with chemicals. he's continuing to attack his people with barrel bombs, blowing up civilians and killing them every single day, and no indication any of that is going to stop any time soon, rachel.

>> and the president's response to that continuation of the war has been to recently say he wants to get out of syria and wants the united states to be disentangled further than we have been. >> courtney, thanks for giving us the latest. nice to see you. >> thanks. >> underscoring what courtesy said at the top, a decision hasn't been made. we're anticipating the white house will do something, if for nothing more than making good on the president's statements. but as courtny said a meeting has to happen in the white house and it has not happened yet. stay with us. ey said a meeting has to happen in the white house and it has not happened yet. stay with us. >> tech: at safelite autoglass

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one thing to give you a heads up about for tomorrow morning, the confirmation hearing is going to happen tomorrow morning for mike pompeo, president trump's controversial cia chief who he has tapped to take over for his controversial secretary of state rex tillerson who he fired. the pompeo confirmation hearing should actually be -- maybe -- i'm not going to say fireworks. i'm going to say it might be slightly heated. you may want to put that on your docket tomorrow morning. we'll see you tomorrow. now it's time for "the last word with lawrence o'donnell" good evening lawrence. >> good evening, rachel. it seems in trump world they never go away. i listened to your discussion of the new steve bannon tragedy about how trump world should deal with the special prosecutor. it is just amazing that he's back. >> everybody's got a theory. the fact that his -- part of his theory is that